VI. The Diamond Maker
"I've called, Professor Kennedy, to see if we can retain you in a casewhich I am sure will tax even your resources. Heaven knows it has taxedours."
The visitor was a large, well-built man. He placed his hat on the tableand, without taking off his gloves, sat down in an easy chair which hecompletely filled.
"Andrews is my name--third vice-president of the Great Eastern LifeInsurance Company. I am the nominal head of the company's privatedetective force, and though I have some pretty clever fellows onmy staff we've got a case that, so far, none of us has been able tounravel. I'd like to consult you about it."
Kennedy expressed his entire willingness to be consulted, and after theusual formalities were over, Mr. Andrews proceeded.
"I suppose you are aware that the large insurance companies maintainquite elaborate detective forces and follow very keenly such of thecases of their policy-holders as look at all suspicious. This case whichI wish to put in your hands is that of Mr. Solomon Morowitch, a wealthyMaiden Lane jeweller. I suppose you have read something in the papersabout his sudden death and the strange robbery of his safe?"
"Very little," replied Craig. "There hasn't been much to read."
"Of course not, of course not," said Mr. Andrews with some show ofgratification. "I flatter myself that we have pulled the wires so as tokeep the thing out of the papers as much as possible. We don't want tofrighten the quarry till the net is spread. The point is, though, tofind out who is the quarry. It's most baffling."
"I am at your service," interposed Craig quietly, "but you will haveto enlighten me as to the facts in the case. As to that, I know no morethan the newspapers."
"Oh, certainly, certainly. That is to say, you know nothing at all andcan approach it without bias." He paused and then, seeming to noticesomething in Craig's manner, added hastily: "I'll be perfectly frankwith you. The policy in question is for one hundred thousand dollars,and is incontestable. His wife is the beneficiary. The company isperfectly willing to pay, but we want to be sure that it is all straightfirst. There are certain suspicious circumstances that in justice toourselves we think should be cleared up. That is all--believe me. We arenot seeking to avoid an honest liability."
"What are these suspicious circumstances?" asked Craig, apparentlysatisfied with the explanation.
"This is in strict confidence, gentlemen," began Mr. Andrews. "Mr.Morowitch, according to the story as it comes to us, returned home lateone night last week, apparently from his office, in a very weakened,a semiconscious, condition. His family physician, Doctor Thornton, wassummoned, not at once, but shortly. He pronounced Mr. Morowitch to besuffering from a congestion of the lungs that was very like a suddenattack of pneumonia.
"Mr. Morowitch had at once gone to bed, or at least was in bed, when thedoctor arrived, but his condition grew worse so rapidly that the doctorhastily resorted to oxygen, under which treatment he seemed to revive.The doctor had just stepped out to see another patient when a hurry callwas sent to him that Mr. Morowitch was rapidly sinking. He died beforethe doctor could return. No statement whatever concerning the cause ofhis sudden illness was made by Mr. Morowitch, and the death-certificate,a copy of which I have, gives pneumonia as the cause of death. One ofour men has seen Doctor Thornton, but has been able to get nothing outof him. Mrs. Morowitch was the only person with her, husband at thetime."
There was something in his tone that made me take particular note ofthis last fact, especially as he paused for an instant.
"Now, perhaps there would be nothing surprising about it all, so farat least, were it not for the fact that the following morning, when hisjunior partner, Mr. Kahan, opened the place of business, or rather wentto it, for it was to remain closed, of course, he found that duringthe night someone had visited it. The lock on the great safe, whichcontained thousands of dollars' worth of diamonds, was intact; but inthe top of the safe a huge hole was found--an irregular, round hole, bigenough to put your foot through. Imagine it, Professor Kennedy, a greathole in a safe that is made of chrome steel, a safe that, short of asafety-deposit vault, ought to be about the strongest thing on earth.
"Why, that steel would dull and splinter even the finest diamond-drillbefore it made an impression. The mere taking out and refitting ofdrills into the brace would be a most lengthy process. Eighteen ortwenty hours is the time by actual test which it would take to boresuch a hole through those laminated plates, even if there were meansof exerting artificial pressure. As for the police, they haven't even atheory yet."
"And the diamonds"
"All gone--everything of any value was gone. Even the letter-files wereransacked. His desk was broken open, and papers of some nature had beentaken out of it. Thorough is no name for the job. Isn't that enough toarouse suspicion?"
"I should like to see that safe," was all Kennedy said.
"So you shall, so you shall," said Mr. Andrews. "Then we may retain youin our service? My car is waiting down-stairs. We can go right down toMaiden Lane if you wish."
"You may retain me on one condition," said Craig without moving. "I amto be free to get at the truth whether it benefits or hurts the company,and the case is to be entirely in my hands."
"Hats on," agreed Mr. Andrews, reaching in his vest pocket and pullingout three or four brevas. "My chauffeur is quite a driver. He can almostbeat the subway down."
"First, to my laboratory," interposed Craig. "It will take only a fewminutes."
We drove up to the university and stopped on the campus while Craighurried into the Chemistry Building to get something.
"I like your professor of criminal science;" said Andrews to me, blowinga huge fragrant cloud of smoke.
I, for my part, liked the vice-president. He was a man who seemedthoroughly to enjoy life, to have most of the good things, and acapacity for getting out of them all that was humanly possible. Heseemed to be particularly enjoying this Morowitch case.
"He has solved some knotty cases," was all I said. "I've come to believethere is no limit to his resourcefulness."
"I hope not. He's up against a tough one this trip, though, my boy."
I did not even resent the "my boy." Andrews was one of those men inwhom we newspaper writers instinctively believe. I knew that it wouldbe "pens lifted" only so long as the case was incomplete. When the timecomes with such men they are ready to furnish us the best "copy" in theworld.
Kennedy quickly rejoined us, carrying a couple of little glass bottleswith ground-glass stoppers.
Morowitch & Co. was, of course, closed when we arrived, but we hadno trouble in being admitted by the Central Office man who had beendetailed to lock the barn door after the horse was stolen. It wasprecisely as Mr. Andrews had said. Mr. Kahan showed us the safe. Throughthe top a great hole had been made--I say made, for at the moment I wasat a loss to know whether it had been cut, drilled, burned, blown out,or what-not.
Kennedy examined the edges of the hole carefully, and just the traceof a smile of satisfaction flitted over his face as he did so. Withoutsaying a word he took the glass stopper out of the larger bottle whichhe had brought and poured the contents on the top of the safe near thehole. There it lay, a little mound of reddish powder.
Kennedy took a little powder of another kind from the other bottle andlighted it with a match.
"Stand back--close to the wall," he called as he dropped the burningmass on the red powder. In two or three leaps he joined us at the farend of the room.
Almost instantly a dazzling, intense flame broke out, and sizzled andcrackled. With bated breath we watched. It was almost incredible, butthat glowing mass of powder seemed literally to be sinking, sinkingright down into the cold steel. In tense silence we waited. On theceiling we could still see the reflection of the molten mass in the cupwhich it had burned for itself in the top of the safe.
At last it fell through into the safe--fell as the burning roof of aframe building would fall into the building. No one spoke a word, but aswe cautiously peered over the top
of the safe we instinctively turned toKennedy for an explanation. The Central Office man, with eyes as big ashalf-dollars, acted almost as if he would have liked to clap the ironson Kennedy. For there in the top of the safe was another hole, smallerbut identical in nature with the first one.
"Thermit," was all Kennedy said.
"Thermit?" echoed Andrews, shifting the cigar which he had allowed to goout in the excitement.
"Yes, an invention of a chemist named Goldschmidt, of Essen, Germany. Itis a compound of iron oxide, such as comes off a blacksmith's anvil orthe rolls of a rolling-mill, and powdered metallic aluminum. You couldthrust a red-hot bar into it without setting it off, but when youlight a little magnesium powder and drop it on thermit, a combustion isstarted that quickly reaches fifty-four hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Ithas the peculiar property of concentrating its heat to the immediatespot on which it is placed. It is one of the most powerful oxidisingagents known, and it doesn't even melt the rest of the steel surface.You see how it ate its way through the steel. Either black or redthermit will do the trick equally well."
No one said anything. There was nothing to say.
"Someone uncommonly clever, or instructed by someone uncommonly clever,must have done that job," added Craig. "Well, there is nothing more tobe done here," he added, after a cursory look about the office. "Mr.Andrews, may I have a word with you? Come on, Jameson. Good day, Mr.Kahan. Good day, Officer."
Outside we stopped for a moment at the door of Andrews's car.
"I shall want to see Mr. Morowitch's papers at home," said Craig,"and also to call on Doctor Thornton. Do you think I shall have anydifficulty?"
"Not at all," replied Mr. Andrews, "not at all. I will go with youmyself and see that you have none. Say, Professor Kennedy," he brokeout, "that was marvellous. I never dreamed such a thing was possible.But don't you think you could have learned something more up there inthe office by looking around?"
"I did learn it," answered Kennedy. "The lock on the door wasintact--whoever did the job let himself in by a key. There is no otherway to get in."
Andrews gave a low whistle and glanced involuntarily up at the windowwith the sign of Morowitch & Co. in gold letters several floors above.
"Don't look up. I think that was Kahan looking out at us," he said,fixing his eyes on his cigar. "I wonder if he knows more about this thanhe has told! He was the 'company,' you know, but his interest in thebusiness was only very slight. By George--"
"Not too fast, Mr. Andrews," interrupted Craig. "We have still to seeMrs. Morowitch and the doctor before we form any theories."
"A very handsome woman, too," said Andrews, as we seated ourselvesin the car: "A good deal younger than Morowitch. Say, Kahan isn't abad-looking chap, either, is he? I hear he was a very frequent visitorat his partner's house. Well, which first, Mrs. M. or the doctor?"
"The house," answered Craig.
Mr. Andrews introduced us to Mrs. Morowitch, who was in very deepmourning, which served, as I could not help noticing, rather to heightenthan lessen her beauty. By contrast it brought out the rich deep colourof her face and the graceful lines of her figure. She was altogether avery attractive young widow.
She seemed to have a sort of fear of Andrews, whether merely because herepresented the insurance company on which so much depended or becausethere were other reasons for fear, I could not, of course, make out.Andrews was very courteous and polite, yet I caught myself asking if itwas not a professional rather than a personal politeness. Rememberinghis stress on the fact that she was alone with her husband when hedied, it suddenly flashed across my mind that somewhere I had read ofa detective who, as his net was being woven about a victim, always grewmore and more ominously polite toward the victim. I know that Andrewssuspected her of a close connection with the case. As for myself, Idon't know what I suspected as yet.
No objection was offered to our request to examine Mr. Morowitch'spersonal effects in the library, and accordingly Craig ransackedthe desk and the letter-file. There was practically nothing to bediscovered.
"Had Mr. Morowitch ever received any threats of robbery?" asked Craig,as he stood before the desk.
"Not that I know of," replied Mrs. Morowitch. "Of course every jewellerwho carries a large stock of diamonds must be careful. But I don't thinkmy husband had any special reason to fear robbery. At least he neversaid anything about it. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing. I merely thought there might be some hint as to themotives of the robbery," said Craig. He was fingering one of thosedesk-calendars which have separate leaves for each day with blank spacesfor appointments.
"'Close deal Poissan,'" he read slowly from one of the entries, as if tohimself. "That's strange. It was the correspondence under the letter'P' that was destroyed at the office, and there is nothing in theletter-file here, either. Who was Poissan?"
Mrs. Morowitch hesitated, either from ignorance or from a desire toevade the question. "A chemist, I think," she said doubtfully. "Myhusband had some dealings with him--some discovery he was going to buy.I don't know anything about it. I thought the deal was off."
"The deal?"
"Really, Mr. Kennedy, you had better ask Mr. Kahan. My husband talkedvery, little to me about business affairs."
"But what was the discovery?"
"I don't know. I only heard Mr. Morowitch and Mr. Kahan refer to somedeal about a discovery regarding diamonds."
"Then Mr. Kahan knows about it?"
"I presume so."
"Thank you, Mrs. Morowitch," said Kennedy, when it was evident that sheeither could not or would not add anything to what she had said. "Pardonus for causing all this trouble."
"No trouble at all," she replied graciously, though I could see she wasintent on every word and motion of Kennedy and Andrews.
Kennedy stopped the car at a drug-store a few blocks away and asked forthe business telephone directory. In an instant, under chemists, heput his finger on the name of Poissan--"Henri Poissan, electricfurnaces,--William St.," he read.
"I shall visit him to-morrow morning. Now for the doctor."
Doctor Thornton was an excellent specimen of the genus physician tothe wealthy--polished, cool, suave. One of Mr. Andrews's men, as Ihave said, had seen him already, but the interview had been veryunsatisfactory. Evidently, however, the doctor had been turningsomething over in his mind since then and had thought better of it. Atany rate, his manner was cordial enough now.
As he closed the doors to his office, he began to pace the floor. "Mr.Andrews," he said, "I am in some doubt whether I had better tell you orthe coroner what I know. There are certain professional secrets that adoctor must, as a duty to his patients, conceal. That is professionalethics. But there are also cases when, as a matter of public policy, adoctor should speak out."
He stopped and faced us.
"I don't mind telling you that I dislike the publicity that would attendany statement I might make to the coroner."
"Exactly," said Andrews. "I appreciate your position exactly. Your otherpatients would not care to see you involved in a scandal--or at leastyou would not care to have them see you so involved, with all thenewspaper notoriety such a thing brings."
Doctor Thornton shot a quick glance at Andrews, as if he would like toknow just how much his visitor knew or suspected.
Andrews drew a paper from his pocket. "This is a copy of thedeath-certificate," he said. "The Board of Health has furnished itto us. Our physicians at the insurance company tell me it is ratherextraordinarily vague. A word from us calling the attention of theproper authorities to it would be sufficient, I think. But, Doctor, thatis just the point. We do not desire publicity any more than you do. Wecould have the body of Mr. Morowitch exhumed and examined, but Iprefer to get the facts in the case without resorting to such extrememeasures."
"It would do no good," interrupted the doctor hastily. "And if you'llsave me the publicity, I'll tell you why."
Andrews nodded, but still held the death-certificate where the doctorwas constantly
reminded of it.
"In that certificate I have put down the cause of death as congestionof the lungs due to an acute attack of pneumonia. That is substantiallycorrect, as far as it goes. When I was summoned to see Mr. MorowitchI found him in a semiconscious state and scarcely breathing. Mrs.Morowitch told me that he had been brought home in a taxicab by a manwho had picked him up on William Street. I'm frank to say that at firstsight I thought it was a case of plain intoxication, for Mr. Morowitchsometimes indulged a little freely when he made a splendid deal. Ismelled his breath, which was very feeble. It had a sickish sweet odour,but that did not impress me at the time. I applied my stethoscope tohis lungs. There was a very marked congestion, and I made as my workingdiagnosis pneumonia. It was a case for quick and heroic action. In avery few minutes I had a tank of oxygen from the hospital.
"In the meantime I had thought over that sweetish odour, and it flashedon my mind that it might, after all, be a case of poisoning. When theoxygen arrived I administered it at once. As it happens, the RockefellerInstitute has just published a report of experiments with a new antidotefor various poisons, which consists simply in a new method of enforcedbreathing and throwing off the poison by oxidising it in that way. Ineither case--the pneumonia theory or the poison theory--this line ofaction was the best that I could have adopted on the spur of the moment.I gave him some strychnine to strengthen his heart and by hard work Ihad him resting apparently a little easier. A nurse had been sent for,but had not arrived when a messenger came to me telling of a very suddenillness of Mrs. Morey, the wife of the steel-magnate. As the Morey homeis only a half-block away, I left Mr. Morowitch, with very particularinstructions to his wife as to what to do.
"I had intended to return immediately, but before I got back Mr.Morowitch was dead. Now I think I've told you all. You see, it wasnothing but a suspicion--hardly enough to warrant making a fuss about.I made out the death-certificate, as you see. Probably that would havebeen all there was to it if I hadn't heard of this incomprehensiblerobbery. That set me thinking again. There, I'm glad I've got it out ofmy system. I've thought about it a good deal since your man was here tosee me."
"What do you suspect was the cause of that sweetish odour?" askedKennedy.
The doctor hesitated. "Mind, it is only a suspicion. Cyanide ofpotassium or cyanogen gas; either would give such an odour."
"Your treatment would have been just the same had you been certain?"
"Practically the same, the Rockefeller treatment."
"Could it have been suicide" asked Andrews.
"There was no motive for it, I believe," replied the doctor.
"But was there any such poison in the Morowitch house?"
"I know that they were much interested in photography. Cyanide ofpotassium is used in certain processes in photography."
"Who was interested in photography, Mr. or Mrs. Morowitch?"
"Both of them."
"Was Mrs. Morowitch?"
"Both of them," repeated the doctor hastily. It was evident howAndrews's questions were tending, and it was also evident that thedoctor did not wish to commit himself or even to be misunderstood.
Kennedy had sat silently for some minutes, turning the thing over in hismind. Apparently disregarding Andrews entirely, he now asked, "Doctor,supposing it had been cyanogen gas which caused the congestion of thelungs, and supposing it had not been inhaled in quantities large enoughto kill outright, do you nevertheless feel that Mr. Morowitch was in aweak enough condition to die as a result of the congestion produced bythe gas after the traces of the cyanogen had been perhaps thrown off?"
"That is precisely the impression which I wished to convey."
"Might I ask whether in his semiconscious state he said anything thatmight at all serve as a clue?"
"He talked ramblingly, incoherently. As near as I can remember it, heseemed to believe himself to have become a millionaire, a billionaire.He talked of diamonds, diamonds, diamonds. He seemed to be picking themup, running his fingers through them, and once I remember he seemed towant to send for Mr. Kahan and tell him something. 'I can make them,Kahan,' he said, 'the finest, the largest, the whitest--I can makethem.'"
Kennedy was all attention as Dr. Thornton added this new evidence.
"You know," concluded the doctor, "that in cyanogen poisoning theremight be hallucinations of the wildest kind. But then, too, in thedelirium of pneumonia it might be the same."
I could see by the way Kennedy acted that for the first time a ray oflight had dawned upon him in tracing out the case. As we rose to go,the doctor shook hands with us. His last words were said with an air ofgreat relief, "Gentlemen, I have eased my conscience considerably."
As we parted for the night Kennedy faced Andrews. "You recall that youpromised me one thing when I took up this case?" he asked.
Andrews nodded.
"Then take no steps until I tell you. Shadow Mrs. Morowitch and Mr.Kahan, but do not let them know you suspect them of anything. Let me rundown this Poissan clue. In other words, leave the case entirely in myhands in other respects. Let me know any new facts you may unearth, andsome time to-morrow I shall call on you, and we will determine what thenext step is to be. Good night. I want to thank you for putting me inthe way of this case. I think we shall all be surprised at the outcome."
It was late the following afternoon before I saw Kennedy again. He wasin his laboratory winding two strands of platinum wire carefully abouta piece of porcelain and smearing on it some peculiar black glassygranular substance that came in a sort of pencil, like a stick ofsealing-wax. I noticed that he was very particular to keep the two wiresexactly the same distance from each other throughout the entire lengthof the piece of porcelain, but I said nothing to distract his attention,though a thousand questions about the progress of the case were at mytongue's end.
Instead I watched him intently. The black substance formed a sort ofbridge connecting and covering the wires. When he had finished he said:"Now you can ask me your questions, while I heat and anneal this littlecontrivance. I see you are bursting with curiosity."
"Well, did you see Poissan?" I asked.
Kennedy continued to heat the wire-covered porcelain. "I did, and he isgoing to give me a demonstration of his discovery to-night."
"His discovery!"
"You remember Morowitch's 'hallucination,' as the doctor called it? Thatwas no hallucination; that was a reality. This man Poissan says he hasdiscovered a way to make diamonds artificially out of pure carbon in anelectric furnace. Morowitch, I believe, was to buy his secret. His dreamof millions was a reality--at least to him."
"And did Kahan and Mrs. Morowitch know it?" I asked quickly.
"I don't know yet," replied Craig, finishing the annealing.
The black glassy substance was now a dull grey.
"What's that stuff you were putting on the wire?" I asked.
"Oh, just a by-product made in the manufacture of sulphuric acid,"answered Kennedy airily, adding, as if to change the subject: "I wantyou to go with me to-night. I told Poissan I was a professor in theuniversity and that I would bring one of our younger trustees, the sonof the banker, T. Pierpont Spencer, who might put some capital into hisscheme. Now, Jameson, while I'm finishing up my work here, run over tothe apartment and get my automatic revolver. I may need it to-night. Ihave communicated with Andrews, and he will be ready. The demonstrationwill take place at half-past-eight at Poissan's laboratory. I tried toget him to give it here, but he absolutely refused."
Half an hour later I rejoined Craig at his laboratory, and we rode downto the Great Eastern Life Building.
Andrews was waiting for us in his solidly furnished office. Outside Inoted a couple of husky men, who seemed to be waiting for orders fromtheir chief.
From the manner in which the vice-president greeted us it was evidentthat he was keenly interested in what Kennedy was about to do. "Soyou think Morowitch's deal was a deal to purchase the secret ofdiamond-making?" he mused.
"I feel sure of it," replied
Craig. "I felt sure of it the moment Ilooked up Poissan and found that he was a manufacturer of electricfurnaces. Don't you remember the famous Lemoine case in London andParis?"
"Yes, but Lemoine was a fakir of the first water;" said Andrews. "Do youthink this man is, too?"
"That's what I'm going to find out to-night before I take another step,"said Craig. "Of course there can be no doubt that by proper use theelectric furnace will make small, almost microscopic diamonds. It is notunreasonable to suppose that some day someone will be able to make largediamonds synthetically by the same process."
"Maybe this man has done it," agreed Andrews. "Who knows? I'll wagerthat if he has and that if Morowitch had bought an interest in hisprocess Kahan knew of it. He's a sharp one. And Mrs. Morowitch doesn'tlet grass grow under her feet, when it comes to seeing the main chanceas to money. Now just supposing Mr. Morowitch had bought an interest ina secret like that and supposing Kahan was in love with Mrs. Morowitchand that they--"
"Let us suppose nothing, Mr. Andrews," interrupted Kennedy. "At leastnot yet. Let me see; it is now ten minutes after eight. Poissan's placeis only a few blocks from here. I'd like to get there a few minutesearly. Let's start."
As we left the office, Andrews signalled to the two men outside, andthey quietly followed a few feet in the rear, but without seeming to bewith us.
Poissan's laboratory was at the top of a sort of loft building a dozenstories or so high. It was a peculiar building, with several entrancesbesides a freight elevator at the rear and fire-escapes that led toadjoining lower roofs.
We stopped around the corner in the shadow, and Kennedy and Andrewstalked earnestly. As near as I could make out Kennedy was insisting thatit would be best for Andrews and his men not to enter the buildingat all, but wait down-stairs while he and I went up. At last thearrangement was agreed on.
"Here," said Kennedy, undoing a package he had carried, "is a littleelectric bell with a couple of fresh dry batteries attached to it, andwires that will reach at least four hundred feet. You and the men waitin the shadow here by this side entrance for five minutes after Jamesonand I go up. Then you must engage the night watchman in some way. Whilehe is away you will find two wires dangling down the elevator shaft.Attach them to these wires from the bell and the batteries--thesetwo--you know how to do that. The wires will be hanging in the thirdshaft--only one elevator is running at night, the first. The moment youhear the bell begin to ring; jump into the elevator and come up to thetwelfth floor--we'll need you."
As Kennedy and I rode up in the elevator I could not help thinking whatan ideal place a down-town office building is for committing a crime,even at this early hour of the evening. If the streets were deserted,the office-buildings were positively uncanny in their grim, blacksilence with only here and there a light.
The elevator in the first shaft shot down again to the ground floor, andas it disappeared Kennedy took two spools of wire from his pocket andhastily shoved them through the lattice work the third elevator shaft.They quickly unrolled, and I could hear them strike the top of the emptycar below in the basement. That meant that Andrews on the ground floorcould reach the wires and attach them to the bell.
Quickly in the darkness Kennedy attached the ends of the wires to thecurious little coil I had seen him working on in the laboratory, and weproceeded down the hall to the rooms occupied by Poissan, Kennedy hadallowed for the wire to reach from the elevator-shaft up this hall,also, and as he walked he paid it out in such a manner that it fell onthe floor close to the wall, where, in the darkness, it would never benoticed or stumbled over.
Around an "L" in the hall I could see a ground-glass window with a lightshining through it. Kennedy stopped at the window and quickly placedthe little coil on the ledge, close up against the glass, with the wiresrunning from it down the hall. Then we entered.
"On time to the minute, Professor," exclaimed Poissan, snapping hiswatch. "And this, I presume, is the banker who is interested in mygreat discovery of making artificial diamonds of any size or colour?" headded, indicating me.
"Yes," answered Craig, "as I told you, a son of Mr. T. PierpontSpencer."
I shook hands with as much dignity as I could assume, for the role ofimpersonation was a new one to me.
Kennedy carelessly laid his coat and hat on the inside ledge of theground-glass window, just opposite the spot where he had placed thelittle coil on the other side of the glass. I noted that the window wassimply a large pane of wire-glass set in the wall for the purpose ofadmitting light in the daytime from the hall outside.
The whole thing seemed eerie to me--especially as Poissan's assistantwas a huge fellow and had an evil look such as I had seen in pictures ofthe inhabitants of quarters of Paris which one does not frequent exceptin the company of a safe guide. I was glad Kennedy had brought hisrevolver, and rather vexed that he had not told me to do likewise.However, I trusted that Craig knew what he was about.
We seated ourselves some distance from a table on which was a huge,plain, oblong contrivance that reminded me of the diagram of aparallelopiped which had caused so much trouble in my solid geometry atcollege.
"That's the electric furnace, sir," said Craig to me with an assumeddeference, becoming a college professor explaining things to the sonof a great financier. "You see the electrodes at either end? When thecurrent is turned on and led through them into the furnace you can getthe most amazing temperatures in the crucible. The most refractory ofchemical compounds can be broken up by that heat. What is the highesttemperature you have attained, Professor?"
"Something over three thousand degrees Centigrade," replied Poissan, ashe and his assistant busied themselves about the furnace.
We sat watching him in silence.
"Ah, gentlemen, now I am ready," he exclaimed at length, when everythingwas arranged to his satisfaction. "You see, here is a lump of sugarcarbon--pure amorphous carbon: Diamonds, as you know, are composed ofpure carbon crystallised under enormous pressure. Now, my theory is thatif we can combine an enormous pressure and an enormous heat we can makediamonds artificially. The problem of pressure is the thing, for herein the furnace we have the necessary heat. It occurred to me that whenmolten cast iron cools it exerts a tremendous pressure. That pressure iswhat I use."
"You know, Spencer, solid iron floats on molten iron like solidwater--ice--floats on liquid water," explained Craig to me.
Poissan nodded. "I take this sugar carbon and place it in this soft ironcup. Then I screw on this cap over the cup, so. Now I place this mass ofiron scraps in the crucible of the furnace and start the furnace."
He turned a switch, and long yellowish-blue sheets of flame spurted outfrom the electrodes on either side. It was weird, gruesome. One couldfeel the heat of the tremendous electric discharge.
As I looked at the bluish-yellow flames they gradually changed to abeautiful purple, and a sickish sweet odour filled the room. Thefurnace roared at first, but as the vapors increased it became a betterconductor of the electricity, and the roaring ceased.
In almost no time the mass of iron scraps became molten. SuddenlyPoissan plunged the cast-iron cup into the seething mass. The cupfloated and quickly began to melt. As it did so he waited attentivelyuntil the proper moment. Then with a deft motion he seized the wholething with a long pair of tongs and plunged it into a vat of runningwater. A huge cloud of steam filled the room.
I felt a drowsy sensation stealing over me as the sickish sweet smellfrom the furnace increased. Gripping the chair, I roused myself andwatched Poissan attentively. He was working rapidly. As the molten masscooled and solidified he took it out of the water and laid it on ananvil.
Then his assistant began to hammer it with careful, sharp blows,chipping off the outside.
"You see, we have to get down to the core of carbon gently," he said, ashe picked up the little pieces of iron and threw them into a scrap-box."First rather brittle cast iron, then hard iron, then iron and carbon,then some black diamonds, and in the very centre the diamonds.
br /> "Ah! we are getting to them. Here is a small diamond. See, Mr.Spencer--gently Francois--we shall come to the large ones presently."
"One moment, Professor Poissan," interrupted Craig; "let your assistantbreak them out while I stand over him."
"Impossible. You would not know when you saw them. They are just roughstones."
"Oh, yes, I would."
"No, stay where you are. Unless I attend to it the diamonds might beruined."
There was something peculiar about his insistence, but after he pickedout the next diamond I was hardly prepared for Kennedy's next remark.
"Let me see the palms of your hands."
Poissan shot an angry glance at Kennedy, but he did not open his hands.
"I merely wish to convince you, 'Mr. Spencer,'" said Kennedy to me,"that it is no sleight-of-hand trick and that the professor has notseveral uncut stones palmed in his hand like a prestidigitator."
The Frenchman faced us, his face livid with rage. "You call me aprestidigitator, a fraud--you shall suffer for that! Sacrebleu! Ventredu Saint Gris! No man ever insults the honour of Poissan. Francois,water on the electrodes!"
The assistant dashed a few drops of water on the electrodes. The sickishodour increased tremendously. I felt myself almost going, but with aneffort I again roused myself. I wondered how Craig stood the fumes, forI suffered an intense headache and nausea.
"Stop!" Craig thundered. "There's enough cyanogen in this room already.I know your game--the water forms acetylene with the carbon, and thatuniting with the nitrogen of the air under the terrific heat of theelectric arc forms hydrocyanic acid. Would you poison us, too? Do youthink you can put me unconscious out on the street and have a societydoctor diagnose my case as pneumonia? Or do you think we shall diequietly in some hospital as a certain New York banker did last yearafter he had watched an alchemist make silver out of apparentlynothing!"
The effect on Poissan was terrible. He advanced toward Kennedy, theveins in his face fairly standing out. Shaking his forefinger, heshouted: "You know that, do you? You are no professor, and this is nobanker. You are spies, spies. You come from the friends of Morowitch, doyou? You have gone too far with me."
Kennedy said nothing, but retreated and took his coat and hat off thewindow ledge. The hideous penetrating light of the tongues of flame fromthe furnace played on the ground-glass window.
Poissan laughed a hollow laugh.
"Put down your hat and coat, Mistair Kennedy," he hissed. "The door hasbeen locked ever since you have been here. Those windows are barred, thetelephone wire is cut, and it is three hundred feet to the street. Weshall leave you here when the fumes have overcome you. Francois andI can stand them up to a point, and when we reach that point we aregoing."
Instead of being cowed Kennedy grew bolder, though I, for my part, feltso weakened that I feared the outcome of a hand-to-hand encounter witheither Poissan or Francois, who appeared as fresh as if nothing hadhappened. They were hurriedly preparing to leave us.
"That would do you no good," Kennedy rejoined, "for we have no safe fullof jewels for you to rob. There are no keys to offices to be stolen fromour pockets. And let me tell you--you are not the only man in New Yorkwho knows the secret of thermite. I have told the secret to thepolice, and they are only waiting to find who destroyed Morowitch'scorrespondence under the letter 'P' to apprehend the robber of his safe.Your secret is out."
"Revenge! revenge!" Poissan cried. "I will have revenge. Francois,bring out the jewels--ha! ha!--here in this bag are the jewels of Mr.Morowitch. To-night Francois and I will go down by the back elevator toa secret exit. In two hours all your police in New York cannot find us.But in two hours you two impostors will be suffocated--perhaps you willdie of cyanogen, like Morowitch, whose jewels I have at last."
He went to the door into the hall and stood there with a mocking laugh.I moved to make a rush toward them, but Kennedy raised his hand.
"You will suffocate," Poissan hissed again.
Just then we heard the elevator door clang, and hurried steps came downthe long hall.
Craig whipped out his automatic and began pumping the bullets out inrapid succession. As the smoke cleared I expected to see Poissan andFrancois lying on the floor. Instead, Craig had fired at the lock of thedoor. He had shattered it into a thousand bits. Andrews and his men wererunning down the hall.
"Curse you!" muttered Poissan as he banged the now useless lock, "wholet those fellows in? Are you a wizard?"
Craig smiled coolly as the ventilation cleared the room of the deadlycyanogen.
"On the window-sill outside is a selenium cell. Selenium is a badconductor of electricity in the dark, and an excellent conductor whenexposed to light. I merely moved my coat and hat, and the light from thefurnace which was going to suffocate us played through the glass on thecell, the circuit was completed without your suspecting that I couldcommunicate with friends outside, a bell was rung on the street, andhere they are. Andrews, there is the murderer of Morowitch, and there inhis hands are the Morowitch--"
Poissan had moved toward the furnace. With a quick motion he seized thelong tongs. There was a cloud of choking vapour. Kennedy leaped tothe switch and shut off the current. With the tongs he lifted out ashapeless piece of valueless black graphite.
"All that is left of the priceless Morowitch jewels," he exclaimedruefully. "But we have the murderer."
"And to-morrow a certified check for one hundred thousand dollarsgoes to Mrs. Morowitch with my humblest apologies and sympathy," addedAndrews. "Professor Kennedy, you have earned your retainer."